Free Trials

Overview

You can offer a free trial period by setting the trial_end field when creating a subscription. The trial_end must be a date in the future and determines when the first payment will be collected.

How trials work

When a subscription is created with a trial_end:

• The subscription is activated immediately (assuming payment methods are provided).
• No payment is attempted until the trial_end date is reached.
• The first bill is created with a due date matching the trial_end value.
• Once the trial period ends, billing continues at the normal interval defined in cycle_details.

Creating a subscription with a trial

Include the trial_end field in your /subscriptions request. The value must be a future date in ISO 8601 format.

/subscriptions request with trial:

{
  "customer_id": "c3e06b6f-bb52-4b2c-81a3-899860652240",
  "product": {
    "name": "Gold Plan",
    "description": "Monthly gold membership"
  },
  "price": {
    "usage_type": "fixed",
    "amount": 1999,
    "currency": "GBP",
    "cycle_details": {
      "interval": "month",
      "interval_count": 1,
      "limit": 12
    }
  },
  "payment_methods": [
    {
      "type": "card",
      "payment_method_id": "00cfdbdc-5e81-4ce2-adc1-14920120618f",
      "is_primary": true
    }
  ],
  "trial_end": "2025-12-01T09:00:00Z"
}

In this example, the subscription is created as active but the first payment will not be attempted until 1st December 2025. After that, billing continues monthly as defined in cycle_details.

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Note

Payment methods are still required to start a trial. If the subscription is created without payment methods, it will be incomplete and must be activated via the /subscriptions/{subscription_id}/activate endpoint before the trial begins.

Free trial compliance and best practice (UK)

Free trials with stored payment methods are subject to Visa and Mastercard scheme rules. This section outlines what you're required to do as a merchant. Acquired handles payment processing and tokenisation; customer communications and cancellation flows are your responsibility.

Card collection: zero-value authorisation

When collecting a payment method at trial sign-up, Acquired performs a zero-value authorisation by default. This verifies the card and tokenises it without charging the customer, and satisfies SCA requirements for subsequent merchant-initiated payments. See the Components Integration guide for more details.

Scheme obligations